


Creampuff Week

by anticupid16



Category: Carmilla (Web Series)
Genre: Gen, Summer Society, SyFy au, dragon rider au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-19
Updated: 2015-07-25
Packaged: 2018-04-10 01:59:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 7,606
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4372778
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/anticupid16/pseuds/anticupid16
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This is a little insert to my upcoming Dragon Rider AU (consider it a preview) in which the dragon riders stop in their journey to see some fireworks.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Fireworks

“We didn’t have fireworks in our village, they were too dangerous since all the houses were built in the trees…” Carmilla had been shocked to hear Laura had never seen fireworks, when the riders had found themselves stopped at the edge of a large city. Carmilla had been there before, was the only rider who knew how to pronounce its foreign name and count its strange coin currency. She’d taken the captains of the expedition aside and asked them if she could guide the riders through the city, just for a break. They’d been more than willing to see the youngsters brimming with energy leave. It was their loss, of course, because now all the riders were seated on simple benches made of marble—a strange stone to them that warranted lots of exclamation and questioning—waiting for the display to start. 

They could see the rockets lined up in the ground, fuses sticking out a good food from each to allow for safe lighting. Some of the riders were squirming in their chairs, others looking on with the same intensity they held in their faces every day that they tended to their dragons. Laura was a mix of fear and excitement, holding her hands in her lap like she was calm, but Carmilla could see her fingers changing color from red to white. 

“It’s starting!” The call rose from the crowd, and the words traveled through it, reaching the riders eventually and Laura, too. When the first fuse was lit, Carmilla didn’t even see the firework that exploded, but she knew it was red from the color that washed over Laura and the others’ faces. She watched as these riders, children from poor villages and treetop towns, saw fireworks for the first time. Some of them jumped from the noise, even though they had heard the raucous that dragons could make. One or two managed to make their eyes as wide as saucers to take in the full display. Carmilla eventually turned back, about halfway through, unimpressed with the array of colored embers in the sky. 

Fireworks had been impressive to her, once, but that wonder had fled. Every year they were used during the welcoming ceremonies for their Dignitary Visits, a long week of ambassadors flitting in and out of rooms and council chambers and dinners. When she was a child, she’d watched them from her window, wondering when she’d get to sit before them. When she was old enough to sit in the chairs with the dignitaries, she’d memorized the color sequences they were set off in. It was no longer magic but science. 

“Do you think fireworks could ever reach the stars?” Laura asked in a hushed whisper that Carmilla barely heard over the explosions. She was about to open her mouth and reply, no, it was impossible, but when she looked over and saw the broad grin on Laura’s face that twisted her gut and reminded her of the days she’d leaned out of her window, on her balcony, and gasped in glee at the fireworks above her head, she closed it again. 

“You’d have to make one really big,” Carmilla said, feeling like it was a cop out, but one that was worth it because Laura’s face didn’t fall in disappointment or disillusionment. Laura’s hands were no longer tight with anticipation so Carmilla slowly snaked one of her own into the other girl’s lap, blunt nails gliding over the back of Laura’s hand until it opened and allowed her to weave her own fingers into it. Laura glanced over for a moment, that small secret smile that Carmilla only ever saw directed towards herself lit up blue and green for a split second. She took in a breath when the colors of the fireworks changed and the white glow of the new embers lit up Laura’s eyes like amber. 

She wanted nothing more than to lean in and whisper against Laura’s lips how beautiful she was, but then Laura was turning back towards the display, and Carmilla was suddenly burningly aware of her hand in Laura’s. It was a forward move. They had agreed they didn’t want the other riders to know about them, not just yet. Not when none of them trusted Carmilla, but they all hung on Laura’s words like they were the words of an angel. Not when they were still too close to the rules of Silas and Carmilla’s mother. They were waiting. 

But when Carmilla made the move to slip her hand out of Laura’s, she felt fingers tighten around her own, and Laura glanced over again, the secret smile back. This was okay. Carmilla relaxed again, able to turn back to the fireworks display for the last few rockets of it, watching the colors and feeling the burn of the bright light in her eyes. When the final embers had returned to the earth, and the show was proclaimed officially over, Carmilla stood up, her hand slipping right through Laura’s, to direct the riders out of the stadium. 

The fireworks were all they would talk about the whole walk back through the city, to the outer ring where they were camped. Lafontaine and JP excitedly tried to recreate the explosions with their mouths and hands, while Perry shook her head at them and tried to keep them quiet. Laura alternated between laughing at her friends’ display and comparing fireworks to other fire related things with Danny at her side. Carmilla took the rear of the group, shepherding them along behind Will, who was leading from the front. When he turned around to walk backwards, to make sure they were all still there, they met eyes and shared a moment of understanding about how inexperienced these riders were. 

The first thing the riders did upon reaching camp was disperse amongst the sleeping dragons for a last grooming of the night. Carmilla walked confidently towards the wall of the city, where it loomed several feet above her head. Only the young dragons had been permitted through the gate, since they were all the size of large oxen, but Mircalla had been required to stay outside. Her head stretched over the wall after the touch of Carmilla’s mind, and her snout blew hot air that stirred Carmilla’s hair from her shoulders. They opened their minds to each other, absorbing each other’s memories of the last hour apart. Mircalla vaguely acknowledge the feat of the fireworks as an expression of the creativity of humans, but was otherwise unimpressed, just as Carmilla had been. 

But Mircalla informed her of the dialogue of the younger dragons, the ones who were able to glean the images of the fireworks from their fresh connections to their riders. There was an excited buzz amongst them, as well, and after Mircalla retreated back to her side of the large wall Carmilla returned to the other riders, who were gathered around their fire still discussing the display. They didn’t acknowledge her silent arrival, not with a glance or a greeting, so she sat herself next to Will, who was slightly separate from the majority of the group. They sat shoulder to shoulder, watching the combined efforts of a few of the riders to fully recapture the show they had just seen, not acknowledging the divide that had been deepened between them and the riders by something as simple as a fireworks display.


	2. Road Trip

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Silas gang go on a road trip because angler fish gods are stressful

It was just such a college thing to do that Laura couldn’t help but be excited. They were taking a break from the drama caused by living on a campus with a giant angler fish god in a crater by piling into a mini-van and driving as far as they could in three days before heading back. 

The mini-van belonged to campus security but Carmilla had not so nicely suggested to them that she would either be taking the unmarked van, which sat by itself in their garage for when students needed to be secretly removed from campus, or she would be taking their jugulars. The keys had been slid across the counter in five seconds flat. The outside of the car was grey, the interior a slightly darker grey that betrayed years of use and mysterious greenish stains. It was made for seven passengers, and there were indeed seven passengers squished inside as best they could around the overflow of things that either didn’t fit in the trunk or were needed outside of it. 

Kirsch had insisted on driving, and despite their initial misgivings they discovered he was a relatively safe driver who also considerately called out the passing rest stops in case any of them needed to pee. Danny took passenger seat on account of having the next longest legs. That meant that JP and Lafontaine had chosen the back of the van to work on whatever project they were obsessed with at the time, and Perry had sat with them to make sure there were no explosions. Laura and Carmilla got the stand alone seats in the middle, close enough to talk but not close enough for snuggles. 

The first hour of the trip was amazing. Kirsch let Danny have the aux cord and blast whatever she wanted, which meant that she was kindly taking suggestions from Laura. There was a lot of Taylor Swift involved, which was great. Carmilla had fished out her own headphones and was looking out the window, very brood-like, but she looked relaxed. More relaxed than she had been since they got back to campus after Christmas, so Laura figured the road trip was working. She hadn’t heard fighting in the back seat which mean LaF and Perry were getting along. 

They stopped for snacks at a gas station when Perry insisted they take one of the pit stops she had tried to schedule into the entirety of the trip (they’d ignored the first two already). Laura had brought a cooler that was sitting in the space between her and Carmilla’s row, and the front seats. It was running low on sodas and water, so she grabbed the drinks, leaving LaF to stock up on the junk food. Laura was pretty sure she actually heard Perry ask whether or not there was a local farmer’s market. 

When Laura got in the car, she found that Carmilla was holding a giant bag of snacks while LaF and Perry got settled in the back again (JP was sleeping and they were trying to get around him without waking him up). The red and yellow package of filled Twizzlers was poking out amongst the bags of gas station generic chips so Laura plucked the sweets out of the plastic and started to open them up. 

“Cupcake your veins have to be ninety percent sugar,” Carmilla commented, her voice gravely from the nap she’d taken for the last twenty minutes or so. 

“It’s a road trip! You pig out on food that’s bad for you, jam to music, and drink enough caffeine to keep you awake for hours!” 

“If you say so,” but Carm was smiling and Laura was smiling back. Kirsch complained that he wanted a break from driving, so he and Danny switched spots and Kirsch had control of the aux cord. His taste wasn’t as ruled by Laura’s suggestions, but he still picked upbeat music that they could jam to. Carmilla even took her headphones off after a few songs came on, though she didn’t get into the music the way Laura and LaF did. 

JP was the next person to ask for a pit stop, since he’d missed the last one. He also wondered if it would be possible to fish out a couple of the blood bags they’d brought with them from the back, which Carmilla agreed with. At this pit stop, they also ran through a drive through local fast food that none of them recognized to order lunch. 

Since they were eating, they turned the music down and had a rousing debate over whether they’d seen more fields of crops or more pastures of cattle so far. Carmilla interjected that they should stop caring about such mundane things and instead look out for the series of abandoned villages and churches that were out that way and would be fun to explore. Kirsch and Danny, surprisingly, had been adamant that they actually do that, so then they’d all plastered themselves to windows to keep an eye out for any of these so-called abandoned sites. 

“There’s one!” JP had exclaimed excitedly only to find that he was looking at a barn that didn’t look necessarily abandoned, but definitely neglected. They eventually gave up and returned to the ecstatic singing and snacking, and eventually dancing in their seats when they finally found a song that even Carmilla seemed to mouth the words to. 

When the sun started to set, Kirsch suggested that they pull off the road and watch the sunset, which was voted five-to-one (Carmilla didn’t vote and Perry didn’t want to sit outside on the side of the road) in favor. So they opened up the backseat to let Perry sit on the edge of the car while the rest of them sprawled out in the grass on the side of the road, facing a wheat field that reflected the lights of the sunset beautifully. 

Laura leaned her head against Carmilla’s shoulder, smiling and holding her girlfriend’s hand. Kirsch and Danny were joking about something a few feet to their left, JP and LaF were quiet a few feet to their right. It was perfect, having all of her friends and her girlfriend and not worrying about their lives being in danger for a moment. “Thanks for agreeing to come on this trip,” Laura said softly, tilting her head back to meet Carmilla’s gaze. Her broody vampire smiled softly and brushed Laura’s hair behind her ear. 

“Anything for you cutie.”


	3. Paint Gun

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Danny and Kirsch have some fun because Silas is stressful af

There was a note left of Danny’s door that read “meet me at this location at 8” with an address scrawled in chicken scratch. Usually the lack of signature on the note would have made it mysterious and made her nervous, but she would recognize that scrawl anywhere. And she put the address into Google Maps before she set out to find that it was a paint ball range. So Kirsch wanted to play paint ball. He couldn’t have just told her as much? 

“You actually came D-Bear!” Kirsch said, ecstatic and waving and smiling like an actual puppy when Danny walked up to the front of the place at exactly eight that night. 

“And I’ll turn right back around if you don’t cut that stupid nickname,” she said, crossing her arms. 

“All right, all right. So, D-Bro, here’s the deal. We’re playing as a two-person team against literally everyone else. And I asked them how many people showed up today and they told me that there’s like a dozen people including us.” 

Danny raised her eyebrows, but secretly she was thrilled about the challenge. Mel had been driving her up the wall with Summer Society presidential stuff, because even though her chances were next to nothing Danny had to do something about Mel’s… Very anti-Zeta regime. Taking the paint ball gun that the oversized puppy in front of her handed over, Danny prepared for some serious de-stressing. 

“Behind the left wall!” she shouted, spotting where a couple of twenty-somethings were hiding in wait for the next players to enter the arena. Kirsch backed up and pushed her behind another wall, just as two blue pellets of paint came whizzing past their heads. 

“Good save,” Kirsch praised as they crouched to move from the taller wall to a shorter barrier. “Cover me, I’m gonna check it out.” Danny nodded quickly, turning back so she could see around behind them while Kirsch looked over the barrier. “We’re clear to the right, but to the left we’ve got a group of teenagers. Five of them, but two are super short and probably can’t reach over taller barriers.” 

“So if we get up high we can out scout them and out shoot them. That’s five down, good deal,” Danny said, and Kirsch grinned down at her before moving behind the barrier. “Let’s move for that platform. It’s got steps behind it and I think you can get up on a deck and shoot from above. If they don’t move too far into the arena we’ll be able to catch them from there.” 

She and Kirsch looked around the edges of the barrier they stood behind to make sure nobody was coming up on them, then made a run for the platform. Danny heard the sounds of triggers being pulled and paint going flying, but when they reached the stairs, panting, and took an assessment of each other, neither had been hit with the paint. “They’ve got some shit aim,” Kirsch commented, shaking his head with a grin that it looked like he was having trouble keeping contained. 

“I’ll go up and scout, you stay down here in case we’re followed. See someone coming, shout and come up the stairs. We’ll defend from up here,” Danny ordered, and Kirsch nodded, turning and standing firmly at the bottom step while she dashed two steps at a time to the platform, her heart pumping. The Adonis Festival was usually the highlight of her year, the ceremonial hunt (that was supposed to be ceremonial, not literal), the bonding with her sisters, the chance to exercise her skills. But with this year’s disaster, she was glad to have a substitute. 

She crouched behind the solid railing of the platform and slowly peered up, her finger hovering over the trigger of her paint gun, which rested on the railing. She could see the teenagers, all inattentive as they made jokes and loud boasts about how they were going to win. There were indeed five of them, which meant that if she could hit three in a sequence, the other two might have time to duck. They might not, but she didn’t want to deal. 

“Kirsch,” she said down the stairway, listening as his footsteps pounded up and he moved into a crouch beside her. “I’ll get the three on the left you get the two on the right?” she asked, raising her eyebrow. 

“Gotcha D-Bear,” he said, and she didn’t even bother correcting the stupid nickname because the adrenaline was in her ears convincing her that she didn’t need to pay attention to his words anymore. They counted down together, then raised up slightly and started shooting. 

The cries of the teenagers were priceless. The first couple to be hit by their combined force looked dazed, then disgruntled, then outright angry as the rest got shot in succession. All five were sporting bright yellow patches of paint on their chests, and looking around wildly for their assailants, but Danny and Kirsch were already scrambling down the steps of the platform and headed for the next wall where they were going to hold their ground against a family of four that was making their way through the arena. 

An hour later, when the game ended, Danny and Kirsch stood up from where they were hiding and began moving in. They were both spotless of paint and giddy with the fun, turning in their paint guns and coveralls. “Want to grab a bite to eat?” Kirsch suggested, gesturing towards a diner across the street. 

“Yeah I’m starved,” Danny responded. They were seated at a booth by a waiter on roller skates who looked like he’d rather stick a straw in his eye than stand on the skates another minute. The food was greasy, but it was fast and filling, and they were both content. They got milkshakes to go for their walk back to campus.

“You know I wasn’t totally sure you’d show up tonight,” Kirsch said around slurps of his milkshake. 

“Why not? I looked up the place before hand, I love paint ball.” 

Kirsch shrugged. “I don’t know. I wasn’t sure what kind of dates you were used to.” Danny stopped in her tracks, midway to taking a drink of her milkshake, so the straw swayed against her cheek. 

“Date?” she asked, in shock and trying to process what he’d just said. “This was a date?” Kirsch looked sheepish. 

“Yeah I guess it wasn’t too clear, was it… I mean, I was hoping this was a date, but it doesn’t have to be if you’re not…” 

“Um,” Danny ran her fingers through her bangs, trying to think about the situation. “I mean, I guess it’s okay if it’s a date? Just give me a little warning next time please,” she said, taking a really long sip of her milkshake to avoid talking any more. 

“Cool,” Kirsch said, grinning so wide she thought his cheeks might split. “I’ll make sure to tell you next time.”


	4. Dream

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This entry isn't the best; I just wasn't sure how to do the prompt for Dream but hey, here it is.

It wasn’t necessarily that Carmilla was lonely, but that she was alone. Usually she liked things that way, especially since the disaster that had happened with Ell. But lately she’d been having some strange dreams. They didn’t even feel like they should be her dreams necessarily, but evidently they were. 

They all started differently, but no matter how they were introduced they would end up with her meeting a beautiful girl. Sometimes she had the face of old actresses that Carmilla had seen on the stage, other times she had the face of a poet she’d met in Italy or a novelist she’d met in England. It didn’t matter whose face it was—after all, according to recent science you could only dream the faces of people you’d seen before. Carmilla was sure there was a supernatural exception, but not in this case. 

That night, the dream started with her in the Silas cafeteria, talking to someone from one of her classes, and when they sat down it was with a girl—a face she recognized from a movie this time—who introduced herself. The name would escape Carmilla when she woke up. As the dreams always ended, she somehow managed to be alone with the girl, they chatted for some time, and then the girl would fall asleep in her arms. 

Carmilla woke up from the dream with her arms wrapped around her pillow, and she sighed mournfully, trying to will herself back into the dream. But eventually she had to drag herself out of bed and deal with her mother, only knowing that when she slept again there would be another dream. 

The night before Carmilla would be forced to move into a dorm room again and target a new girl for her maman, she had the dream again. This time it was Ell’s face, and she woke up sitting bolt upright, her fingers running through her hair a few times to help her chill out. 

Then she had the misfortune of meeting the cutie that she’d be targeting this time, and that night she had the dream again—actually for what turned out to be the last time—but this time with Laura in all her annoying, talkative, obnoxious, adorable, sugar high glory. 

That was when Carmilla realized she was in danger of getting too attached to the mark, again, and started doing her best to annoy her. She wanted her to give up, to move on, to leave Silas. But the annoying little pest, who’d featured in her last dream, just became a fly that wouldn’t leave out the window and decided to be a thorn in her mother’s side as well as her own (which was amusing but also dangerous). 

Carmilla didn’t have dreams during the time that she was living with Laura. She said she had the one, so that she could frighten Laura about her own dreams, in an attempt to propel her away from the danger she faced in Silas. Of course, it ended up not working, and she ended up falling for the little creampuff bit by bit each day. She in fact didn’t have dreams again until after their Christmas debacle, when Mattie returned to campus and made herself known. 

She had dreams where Mattie killed Laura, ripping her throat out and leaving Carmilla to catch the body. She had dreams where Laura staked Mattie from behind and Carmilla watched the light in her sister’s eyes flicker out. She had dreams where Lophii was freed by Mattie and the board and it consumed Laura and all of her friends, leaving Carmilla alone to know that the two women she’d ever loved were consumed by an angry god. 

Then during the waking hours Laura was so driven to saving the campus, so determined that Carmilla would abandon everything that was within her, that it was like a different sort of nightmare. Laura’s campaign against Mattie felt like it was just a few steps behind one of them killing the other, and Carmilla secretly felt the panic rising in her chest every time the two went toe-to-toe because she was afraid. 

There was no peace in her dreams, there was no peace in her waking day, and it was taking its toll. Carmilla was breaking down, and she wondered if her brief month where she and Laura were tired had been the real dream. It had been all too good to be true, after all. The idea that she could be happy with Laura with nothing to interfere in their lives was insane, she realized now. And so the dream she’d had became the nightmare where she wouldn’t be able to have both her sister and the girl she loved.


	5. Movie Night

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> LaF has a solution for the Hollstein Breakup

It was LaF’s idea to have a movie night in the aftermath of The Breakup. Danny would be too busy with board stuff, but Perry and JP had volunteered to join the movie night, so that made up for it a little bit. Perry even made brownies and cookies for the night specifically, while LaF taught JP about microwave popcorn. Laura was already curled up under a blanket in front of the rather nice television in LaF’s room (they’d decided that it would be better if Laura weren’t in hers and Carm’s room) when they arrived with the snacks and DVDs. 

“We have Stardust, Cabin in the Woods, Into the Woods, a series of Dracula movies, Toy Story, and Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants,” LaF said, sounding apologetic with each title she read off. “Sorry, we don’t have much of a selection here. 

“That’s okay,” Laura said over a mouthful of cookies. She gestured for LaF and JP to make the movie selection while Perry set up their snacks and drinks on little tray tables she’d found in the kitchen. 

They ended up starting with Cabin in the Woods (LaF claimed that horror movies were good for getting over heartbreak and they’d hit the sappy movies later) and Laura zoned out for most of the movie. She was sure she’d eaten the majority of Perry’s baking before she could wash it all down with her soda. There was a lump in her throat that threatened tears, and Laura was determined to be done with the tears. 

The movie ended and Laura gave a bland smile to LaF who suggested Into the Woods next. They even got Laura to sing along to the songs for a few minutes in the beginning. JP accidentally tossed popcorn into Perry’s face trying to catch it in his mouth which led to a brief popcorn tossing fight that Perry screamed at them to stop. She had a smile in the corner of her mouth, though, and Laura was laughing, so the fight went on a little longer. 

They moved on to Stardust, one of LaF’s favorites that she and Laura had watched before. They had a bit about Septimus that they liked to do whenever he came on screen, and soon JP was joining in excitedly. Laura leaned over and gave LaF a one-armed hug to thank them for the movie night, it had been a success. 

Perry was tired and Laura could hardly blame her with all of the strange things that kept happening, so Laura told her to go to bed, and with their Perry freedom LaF and Laura started the popcorn fight up again since nobody was eating the cold, over salted popcorn anymore. JP insisted on making a fresh bag, and while he was gone Laura leaned into LaF’s shoulder. 

“Thank you, really. This has been the perfect night. Even if there was no ice cream,” she said, smiling a little. 

“Ice cream would have been included if you hadn’t already eaten half of the ice cream in the freezer last night,” they teased back, and JP came through the door with the fresh popcorn causing Laura and LaF to make grabbing motions. The three were squished together on the two person couch that was in the room, all taking giant handfuls of popcorn from the bowl in LaF’s lap and searching for whatever sweets were left when the popcorn was gone. 

At this point, they were no longer concentrating on the movies so they switched the TV to cable and set it on some comedy show reruns for background noise. JP was concentrating on the TV still, trying to learn the jokes they were making. LaF and Laura entertained themselves with explaining some of the jokes to him, then went back to talking. They discussed the classes that they would take if the school ever got its act together and started classes again. 

Laura didn’t even notice she was falling asleep, but she was woken the next morning by LaF, asking what she wanted for breakfast and listing all the options Perry had already made. Laura felt better already, lighter on her feet and able to hold a normal conversation without wanting to cry. All she’d needed was a movie night with her friends, and she was ready to face the world again.


	6. Stranded

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The seniors of Silas High take a trip to the Louisiana bayou only to find themselves stranded and facing a giant gator...

Silas High had decided to send the seniors on a trip. At first, there had been a ton of buzz going about as the seniors debated where they were going to be sent. Danny was convinced it would be some camp in the mountains where they could practice their wilderness skills, while Kirsch apparently wanted to believe they’d go to Disney World. It turned out they were going down to Louisiana where apparently a Silas alumni owned an old plantation house with a good portion of land including swampland. 

Laura was excited to get out of town for the first time in her entire life, so she didn’t particularly care that their itinerary was suspiciously lacking. They knew they would be taking boat rides through the swamp and they’d have a one night excursion to New Orleans for souvenirs and a meal. So far that was all that was confirmed. Perry was suspicious, and Laura ended up sitting next to her on the bus ride and listening to her suspicions for the first thirty minutes on the road. 

Eventually, LaFontaine leaned over the seat back and told Perry to stop boring Laura, and the ride was more pleasant after that (not least of all because Perry was feeling miffed and only shared her road trip brownies with Laura, despite LaF and JP behind them whining). It was a seven hour trip, though, so Laura nodded off for the last hour or so and was woken up when her face nearly went flying into the seat in front of here as they arrived at the plantation. 

With a myriad of groans and creaking joints, the seniors got off the bus and started collecting their things from the compartments under the bus, while the teacher chaperones were talking to a tall, imposing woman. She stepped forward once the students had all collected their bags and clapped her hands once to signal for silence. 

“My name is Matska Belmonde, but you may call me Mattie. My mother owns this home, but since she is out of town on business, my brother, sister, and I will be conducting your activities. You all have assigned rooms, and when you walk in the front the maid will be handing out keys to the roommate pairs that you signed up for at school. I assume you are all rather tired, so you are invited to retire to yours rooms. There are parlors on all floors, however, that you may use for social time if you’re not quite ready for bed. The parlors also have some snacks in case you’re feeling hungry.” 

There were murmurs of excitement, and the students started at a quick walk to the plantation house. Laura leaned her head back to take it all in. It was gorgeous, looming over their heads at what had to be at least four if not five stories. There were windows everywhere, but she noticed that on the top floor all of the windows sported black out curtains. 

There was, indeed, a maid in the front hall, even wearing a white dress with an apron over it. She smiled at them all thinly, introduced herself as Elsie, and then started handing out the keys, informing them that their rooms would be on the second and third floors—boys on the third, girls on the second. They would be given a tour of the house the next day, first thing, and were asked to refrain from exploring until that time. Laura could see the weariness in her eyes as she looked over a few students were already whispering excitedly about sneaking out that night and exploring. 

Laura and Danny had signed up as roommates, so Laura weaved through the crowd to find her and Kirsch in a heated argument over whether or not an alligator could live in the house’s basement. Laura waved goodnight to LaFontaine and Perry—LaFontaine had figured it would just be easier to room with Perry than get into a fight with the school over the enforcement of the gender binary by separating boys and girls and ignoring their identity—while she waited for Danny to finish her part of the argument. 

Their room was large. It had two double beds, made up in all white with at least four pillows each (Laura was pretty sure there were more pillows hiding under the huge, long ones at the front of the pile) and with handmade quilts across the foot of each bed. The window had two layers of curtains, and they pulled back the thick layer leaving a lacy curtain so they could see out onto the lands. They couldn’t see very far, but the swamp looked to be visible from their window when it was lighter out. There was also a nice bathroom stocked with little hotel sized soaps and bottles of shampoo. Laura was practically buzzing with excitement, snapping photos on the digital camera her father had let her borrow for the trip, while Danny just smiled at her and shook her head. 

It seemed like this trip was going to be fantastic, and Laura woke up with a smile on her face as she threw open the curtains, waking up Danny, to see the swamp. After they’d all gotten ready and eaten a full Southern breakfast buffet in the huge guest dining room, they were given their tour by Mattie. She even took them out back to where there was a dock and boathouse on the swamp. There was an area they could swim in if they so chose, later. Laura noted that they hadn’t seen their two faculty chaperones in a while, but she shrugged it off when Mattie informed them that before they could do anything else she wanted to make sure they got a full tour of the area, which included a boat ride through the swamp. 

They walked along the length of the dock, to where two pontoon boats were docked, motors running, each manned by a dark haired, dark eyed sibling of Mattie’s (Carmilla and Will she said they were called). She gestured for them to break into two groups, and Laura and her friends found themselves pouring onto the boat with Carmilla due to proximity. She grunted a greeting, revved the boat, and took them out before Will’s boat was done loading. 

When they were out of shouting distance of the dock Laura, who was sitting right behind Carmilla, saw the woman’s shoulders relax and she took the speed down, cruising through. She started speaking in a monotone voice, describing the type of trees they were passing and pointing to a bird flying overhead to tell them what it was. When there was a lull in her monologue about the flora and fauna of the swamp, Kirsch excitedly stood and pointed at something moving beside the boat. “That’s a gator,” she informed them, sounding bored even as the entire boat started talking in frenzied voices. “We leave him alone, he’ll leave us alone. We’re fine in the boat.” 

But Laura watched the gator. It looked huge, but she couldn’t accurately judge its size. It kept swimming beside their boat, maybe from curiosity. Then, there was a jolt and the boat leaned slightly to the side Laura was on. She could see the big metal floater (she didn’t know the technical term for that part of the boat) dip further into the water, and one of the girls on the boat started hiccupping in fear. 

Carmilla stood up from her seat in front of the wheel, looking around with narrowed eyes. “I think we just hit something, we should be fine—“ but then something hit the side of the boat Laura was on, and this time the boat lifted out of the water, threatening to tip over, and then landed back down with a splash that wet her face and the front of her shirt. 

“Everybody hold on! If you can’t swim, lift up the seat underneath you there are life jackets.” 

“Are we going to fall out?” Perry demanded, and Carmilla didn’t answer, gunning the engine and sweeping her look over the swamp. They were headed for what looked like an island in the middle of the swamp, with a small dock that looked like only fishing boats could tie up to it. Laura had her hand wound around the railing of the boat, the other one resting on the back of Carmilla’s seat in front of her. Danny beside her was gripping the seat cushion with both hands, a look of determination on her face as she also swept her eyes over the swamp around them. 

There was a smaller jolt against the back of the boat that made Laura grit her teeth and one of Kirsch’s friends jump, landing on his butt in the center of the boat before he scurried his way back into his seat. When they reached the dock at the island, Carmilla cut the engine and moved around her wheel to the front of the boat, opening the gate there and picking up a length of rope from the front, quickly tying to the dock. She hopped off the boat and pulled it in closer, waving for the passengers to move to the dock. 

They did so hurriedly, practically running, standing in the grassy area just past the dock, since only about four people could stand on the wood comfortably. Carmilla had a phone in hand, one that looked like a giant walkie talkie. “Will?” there was a static noise and then a male voice responded. “Something rammed the boat. I’ve got them on Outlier’s, but I’m not sure what it was. Something big—“ she stopped talking when the water just past where the boat floated in the shallows rippled. Carmilla thrust out an arm, holding the three people on the dock—JP, LaF, and Kirsch’s friend—back from the edge as she backed away as well. 

Out of the water rose an impossibly large gator. Or ate least, the top jaw of an impossibly large gator. It lifted up over the boat, the jaw longer than the length of the boat, let alone its width, before chomping down. There were a series of loud, sickening cracks, and Laura turned away, pushing her head into Danny’s back. When she looked back, all that was left of the boat was the bench seat she’d been on, which floated for a second before sinking under the water. Someone screamed, the students stampeded further onto the island, getting away from the dock. 

They finally stopped inside a copse of trees. Carmilla took a head count, confirming that all of them had made it into the trees. “What was that?” Danny demanded. 

“I have no idea,” Carmilla responded darkly, lifting up the phone again. “Will?” There was a crackling noise and the faintest sound of a voice confirming. “Will if you can hear me, there’s a giant gator. Bigger than the boat. We have no boat, we’re on Outlier’s Island, you need to get back to the house and call for help.” 

She turned off the crackling phone and hooked it to her belt, before turning to the group of students and crossing her arms, flexing her muscles and showing a prominent scar across her left arm. “Looks like we’re stranded here creampuffs.”


	7. Blood Cakes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Carmilla remembers a sweeter time, when she was a child.

When Carmilla was little, her mother was a lot less strict. She was independently wealthy because her own parents had passed away only a couple of years before she adopted Mattie and then got pregnant with Carmilla. Carmilla’s father wasn’t part of their lives, so it was just the three of them since before she could remember. When she was little, they’d sat up late at night watching Dracula movies and eating all sorts of treats—Twinkies, Kinder eggs that Maman had shipped to her from a friend, black cherry cold teas that were colored bright red. 

They traveled, too. Carmilla’s happiest memory to date was probably when she was four and they’d traveled to Taiwan. Maman had bought them street food for dinner every night, and Carmilla’s favorite had been the pig’s blood cakes. She’d loved them so much that when, three months later, Maman had taken them to the British Isles, she’d asked for blood sausage and black pudding for nearly every meal. 

It had been a spoiled childhood, one in which they had the best online tutors to take their classes with and never-ending trips all around the world. But then Maman had started seeing someone, which meant that Mattie and Carmilla were left at home with a nanny more often than not for a year. They didn’t see the Louvre for Mattie’s birthday like she wanted, and they didn’t visit St. Petersburg for Christmas like they usually did. Carmilla grew sulky, and whenever Maman did come home for dinner and asked the girls what they’d like, she’d stubbornly insist she wanted blood cakes—authentic ones not bad attempts—which was a request that Maman could not oblige on such short notice. 

Will was born shortly after, and Maman changed. Maybe it was that Will was a boy, or maybe it was that his father refused to duck out of their lives the way Carmilla’s had, but now they were enrolled in real school, leaving the home every day by town car and wearing scratchy wool sweaters over blouses and plaid skirts. When they came home, the nanny ushered them away to their rooms to do their homework, and they only were allowed back out for dinner with Maman, who spent the whole time nodding listlessly to what they had to say while trying to spoon feed Will in his high chair. 

When Will was old enough to travel, they took a trip during their summer vacation to Germany. It was pleasant, but Maman insisted on bringing a nanny along to keep an eye on Carmilla and Mattie, so there were fewer inside jokes and laughs. And there were no blood cakes. 

When Carmilla finally made her way through the hellish senior year, she went off to college abroad, because Maman was willing to pay for her to go far away. She’d stopped caring so much, it seemed, when Will came into her life. Mattie studied in Paris, and Carmilla studied in Venice. But on breaks, instead of returning home, Carmilla resumed the travels that Maman had begun early in her life. Of course, she had unlimited money from Maman, who only cared that Carmilla appeared to be doing well in school so that she was a “good influence” on her younger brother. For fall break she visited Austria, for Thanksgiving she went to Greece, for Christmas she stayed with Mattie in Paris and visited the sites of France, for New Years she went to Switzerland. 

Her Passport had more stamps in it than any one of her friend’s, so it didn’t take much for her to convince a few of them travel with her during Spring Break. And she managed to convince them that Taiwan was exactly where they should go (Prague be damned). And while her friends were asleep in the hotel, letting the jet lag wear off during their first day in, Carmilla slipped out and wandered the streets, weaving between vendors and buying blood cakes wherever she found them. Finally, she had a bag of at least a dozen, and she sat down in the lobby of her hotel and ate them, one by one, staring out the window and imagining that her mother was sitting beside her, Mattie across from them, as they tried to figure out if there was a video rental store that would have a Dracula movie.


End file.
